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Bahraini businessman and humanitarian Yaqoob Yusuf Ahmed Mubarak stepped up to make a difference after being touched by the video of a Peruvian student studying under a streetlight caught by CCTV footage which had gone viral on several social media sites.
The 32-year-old from Isa Town, who owns London Chocolate in Riffa and Ramli Mall, decided to fly to Peru to help 12-year-old Victor Cordova make his educational path a smooth one.
“My Mexican friend, Gilberto Rosas Landa told me about Victor when I was studying Spanish,” said Yaqoob in an exclusive interview with the GulfWeekly. “After I watched the video on Instagram I asked Gilberto to find him for me. He found him and I flew over to see how I could help.”
His adventure took him to the district of Trujillo, where he met Victor, who had by then, been helped by the town mayor Arturo Fernández Bazán get electricity to his home. Seeing the condition the family was living in and witnessing first-hand Victor’s eagerness to study, Yaqoob got to work immediately and rebuilt the family house into a two-storey home. He also helped Victor’s mom start a small business and provided her with money to ensure Victor’s academic success. He also helped one of Victor’s friends get a wheelchair to make it possible for him to easily get to school and back every day.
He then went further, overcoming bureaucratic hurdles to build a classroom and start a computer class at Victor’s school.
It was during one of Yaqoob’s vacations to Mexico that he met Gilberto. “I was lost and no one nearby could speak English, except him,” he said. “He walked with me to the nearest restaurant and then joined me for lunch. He told me about some of the volunteering he has done and since then, we have been very close friends. He even came to Bahrain to watch the Grand Prix. ”
Gilberto is not the only one who will continue to enjoy Bahraini hospitality as Victor is looking forward to visiting the kingdom in December during his holidays.
Yaqoob, in his travels to the South American country, became Bahrain and the Middle East’s de facto ambassador to the region.
He added: “The mayor even gave me the key to the city, to pass on to the King of Bahrain, His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. But before I came to Peru, they had mostly never even met an Arab before. At first they were not sure why I was there and they didn’t believe me when I said I wanted to rebuild the school.
“But once I started, I became popular quickly in South America. Since then, we have helped Thais, a baby who had to get surgery to remove fluid from brain”.
Thais’ condition, hydrocephalus, results from the build-up of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain, building pressure against the brain and can become fatal, if left untreated.
This isn’t Yaqoob’s first philanthropic endeavour. His voracity for charity started in September 2014 in Pattaya, Thailand.
“It was Friday and I didn’t have enough local currency,” he reminisced. “I had the equivalence of BD10 on me and when I went to withdraw money from my account, the bank told me that I would not be able to access my account till the next day.
“Though I was with my friends, I did not want to borrow from them. I decided to spend the day very quietly. At night, I went to some of the street food vendors to get an experience for living on a budget. I had a chapatti with cheese and egg on it. I spent about BD2.
“As I ate, I noticed a woman with her baby, who was less than a year old, trying to sleep. I asked myself how they could sleep in all this noise. I went up to her, found out she was homeless and gave the rest of the money I had to her.
“Later that night, I saw her go to a toy vendor and use some of the money to buy a toy for her child. I came back home and cried that night, touched by her selflessness.
“I couldn’t find her the next day or the day after. I did get access to my account and on the last day, I found her.”
Yaqoob set her and her daughter up in a flat for a year to help them get back on their feet. He still stays in touch with them and her daughter Maria is now five-years-old.
While Yaqoob is quite popular with children and adults alike today with an Instagram following exceeding 60,000, he usually found himself alone at school during his childhood.
While he came from a reasonably well-off family, the Al Hekma International School student often found himself isolated, even amongst his two brothers and sisters.
His father, a retired manager in aviation, and his mother, a housewife from Saudi Arabia, instilled the value of simply being nice and always representing one’s tribe in the best light possible from a young age.
Yaqoob’s childhood and isolation stuck with him and after studying to be an aviation pilot as well as reading Law in Kuwait, he realised that he wanted his life’s purpose to be bringing happiness to children everywhere. With that in mind, he started a business in a commodity nearest and dearest to youths everywhere…chocolates.
He had just started his business before his trip to Thailand and he credits his philanthropy there with the success of his business that followed.
“An elderly woman in Thailand told me before I left that whatever I had done there would pay off for me in the near future,” he said. “And she was right. Now, I travel the world helping as many people as I can. This is the best business model I have. It’s my work with God. I help people and God helps me.”
Yaqoob’s own children, Adam, Yusuf and Latifa, have deepened his empathy for the joy that he can bring to youngsters around the world, especially in emerging economies.
He however shirked the limelight until his Peruvian adventure. He always saved a day or two at the end of his vacations to go and see the rural parts of the country he visited, finding a way to help the local community without attracting attention. He travelled to Egypt, Turkey and Mexico helping people along the way.
Yaqoob, who has also contributed to schools and education around Bahrain including the Bahrain Down Syndrome Society, hopes to build a charity with the aid of Gilberto. They are already helping another child, Mia, a five-year-old girl who suffers from a rare and incurable brain disorder. Mia’s parents have been struggling with the hospital bills of keeping their daughter alive and comfortable. With the help of Gilberto and Yaqoob, they will be able to purchase a device to ease her breathing, dramatically improving her quality of life.
“I think this is my most important work,” said Yaqoob. “If I can find ways to do good and help children live better lives, I know I will be blessed and Allah will be happy with the work I have done.”
Yaqoob hopes to leverage the attention they are receiving in Spanish language media to continue helping children and families both in Bahrain and South America. He and Gilberto are starting a charity called Déjenos Ayudar, translated in English to “Do you want to help?”, so that they can raise awareness and funds to help families and improve life around the world.
Follow Yaqoob’s work on Instagram @jacob_mubarak87
